I am not a programmer by trade, so I can afford the luxury of making programs for my use and those people who work with me in the areas of finance and product management. Last week I did a simple - but very useful - CAGR calculator in Java. I liked it, it was simple to distribute to the rest of the office, and it had a lot of data validation to make sure no one got the data wrong. But the UI looked so... Java? Besides, I used Netbeans, which adds so much code of its own, it's hard to make changes without getting lost.

Then I decided to make the same program but in Python, using wxPython. I thought it would be easier. Validating the data was longer than in Java. For some reason, my OO design in Java was cleaner with the use of inner classes, while in Python OO sometimes gets lost in the indentation or syntax. But the result was a nicer UI. Better windows, better menues and sharp fonts... Sizers are an odd topic, but the code was clean enough to understand line per line, unlike Netbeans' use of nested layout managers which are very hard to follow.

It was by reading your Java and C++ books that I got into Python, so I would like to know if you have any experiences worth mentioning in Python?

And if you ever decide to write a book on TkInter or wxPython, I will be the first in line to buy it!

Given your activity with TurboGears Jam and seminars, are you still supporting your "Thinking in C++" series books? In particular, I would like to order your solutions guide for Thinking in C++. However, when trying to order, I get an message that says:

The following errors have occurred.

(97) This transaction cannot be accepted.

I checked on some forums and found that at least others are having the same problem so this issue isn't local to my setup. Is there any way I can get a copy of this guide?